A Woman's World || 18+

Chapter 25

"Trust is the mistake humans have wrongly perceived as a virtue"

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The sky looked breathtaking tonight and I pinched myself to realize its beauty was true. It seemed that the pain killers Melinda had prescribed me to for the blows on my ribs had been getting the best of me. My fingers circled around the balcony's railing while my eyes were tracing the outline of the moon. Shortly after my gaze shifted over to the rest of the landscape, the stars, the black-painted trees because of the night and the vast garden unfolding before me.

Feeling the chills of the night breeze taking over my body, I let my head fall back. I breathed. For the first time after days of planning and working I had a moment to breathe, to be just me. Fortunately the universe knew that loosing control for even a second wouldn't benefit so it send a blast on my library's door.

My eyebrows touched each other in curiosity. No one dared to interrupt me from my reading sessions. They knew this was my resting time.

I heard fast footsteps approaching and more of them following behind them. The voices of the guards calling to the man who had announced and unapologetically barged into the library.

Smiling defiantly to myself, I turned around to face those green eyes I had come to know too well far much than I wanted to. Inside them waves were roaring, appointing daggers to my daggers to my direction.

"Let him." I ordered and the guards stepped away from him. They had encircled him, guns raised to his head level.

"Tell them to leave. This is an issue between me and you." Emiliano's husky deep voice filled the silence and my smile widened at this pathetic thought of him being able to order me around, but I complied. The file in his hand told me not to push him further. For now of course.

"Leave." My smile dripping with poison and the guards knowing that cunning expression all too well retreated immediately. When the door closed behind them, Emiliano stalked towards me, stopping a feet away.

"Speak." I jerked my chin towards him unbothered by the sudden proximity.

"Where did you find this?" He tossed me the file he was holding and I gripped it gracefully.

"Does it matter?" I threw the file boldly to the floor. "I warned you to be honest. I warned you that I know everything."

"She doesn't mean nothing to me." He said, his first balling at his sides.

"Good to know." I bore my eyes into him, communicating the challenge. "I could use-"

"No" He interrupted me. I was taken back by the nerve of this man. I could have him killed with a snap of my hands. "She didn't know." He lowered his gaze. "You won't target her, Valencia. She's an innocent girl."

"You seem to think you have the power of ordering me." I chuckled at his authoritative tone. "Don't push your luck."

"You were one once." It was his turn to chuckle. His to get under my skin. "An innocent little girl, weren't you Kingsley?"

"Watch your mouth." I raised my voice to him. He had passed the line. I do not speak of my past. Not even refer to it. I wouldn't start then.

"Please.." He read my face, the emotion, the pain daring to burst under the mask. "Please don't." He whispered, approaching me. His fingers tracing the sides of my thighs under the pants.

"I needed the information for her safety." I grabbed his hands and immobilized them by gripping his wrists. "We have a deal. There's a lot for me on stake here too." I moved to brush past him but he yanked his hands out of my grip, pulling me back by my forearm.